Australian Taxation Law: Factors to Consider and Tax Deductions for Ruby Pty Ltd

This article discusses the factors to consider in Australian taxation law, including taxable income, accounting methods, and deductions for expenses. It also provides insights into the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 and its sections. Additionally, it suggests tax deductions for Ruby Pty Ltd, including rental property expenses, legal expenses, and market research costs.

Running head: AUSTRALIAN TAXATION LAW
Taxation Law
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Question 1
Factors to be considered
According to the Australian law, section 6-5 of ITAA 1997, the quantitative salary of
an Australian citizen must be included into the taxable resource. The sources from which
ordinary income derive into few categories; ex: income from providing personal service,
income from property (car rent or house rent) or the money that comes from any business
(Zainan et al., 2017). There are other variations of taxable income too that case law has stated
about, ex: regular income, periodic income, expected income or earned income. However, the
expected income genre furnishes confusion among the taxpayers on the matter of whether it
is taxable or not according to the section 6-5 of ITAA 1997.
The incomes that are not included in the ordinary income are provided under section
6-10 of ITAA 1997. These incomes are not outside of the assessable income list depending on
multiple provisions (Woellner et al., 2016). These incomes are known as statutory income
and statutory income is a part of assessable income.
According to the guideline of ATO, there are two methods that can be followed for
preparing accounts for the purpose of taxation. In order to know the methods paragraphs 8
and 9 of Taxation ruling 98/1 should be refereed. The first method deals with the payment
that one get in hand and only that money will be dealt with in taxation statement. The due
payments of the simultaneous financial year are excluded from the assessable income and this
leads to the exclusion from taxation file. Now on the other side, all the accumulated payments
or due payments need to be a part of the company’s taxation documentation. If some payment
falls into the category of outstanding payment then still it will come under the tax-payable
amount.

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The process of accounting that will be followed usually depends on the company size and
the area in which the firm operates. Legislation of Australia has stated that business firms that
have an annual turnover of $10 million or more than that should use accrual process for
accounting. But smaller firms can follow cash basis accounting for taxation. To choose any
one accounting method the firm has to be able to fulfil at least one criterion from following
list:
 Businesses that fall into the criteria of small business-yearly turnover must be less
than $10 million
 Gift reducing entity
 Charitable organisations like charitable trustee, government school etc.
Choice of basis adoption
In this case, it can be seen that Frank owns a medium scale business and the turnover
is less than $10 million annually (Tan, Braithwaite & Reinhart, 2016). So Frank can certainly
go with any one of the accounting method among the available methods. Paragraph no.27 of
TR 98/1 states that taxpayers can decide the accounting method for the payment. Paragraphs
8 and 9 of TR 98/1 consist of the accounting methods with the names of Earnings methods
and Receipts methods. Paragraph 17 of TR 98/1 says that the taxpayer must choose the
specific method that goes the best with the circumstances and which will help perfectly to
show the accurate income. The next two paragraphs 18 and 20 state that cash method is
fitting for the employees, business or charitable organizations where the income source is
various. Paragraph 20 is of the view that Accrual method is satisfactory for manufacturing as
well as trading business firms. From the discussion it can be seen that accrual method is the
most suited for Frank (Snape& De Souza, 2016).
Right of insist by Tax Commissioner

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Taxation guidelines do not allow the Taxation Commissioner to force anyone to
follow a particular method of accounting (Sawyer, 2016). It can be seen in the legislation
clearly that that if the firm follow the mentioned criteria of the legislation then it can go with
any of the method. So it’s clear here that if a company is of small or medium sized means the
company’s turnover is less than $10 million then the firm can choose any of the accounting
methods that suits the business’s needs. If a conflict arises between the Commissioner of
Taxation and the suffragist, specific rule of arrangement will be applied on specific
transactions. However, it is completely beyond the scope for the Commissioner of Taxation
to force someone to select a particular accounting method as far as the case law of Henderson
v FCT is concerened.
Appropriate Basis for Frank
If the financial condition of Frank is analysed then it can be understood that it will be
beneficial for Frank if he chooses accrual accounting in the upcoming year too. This method
is more acceptable for his firm. The citations of the case laws such as Carden’s case and
Henderson v FCT it is stated about the appropriate accounting method of the skill based
activities when the business is constantly growing. The outstanding payments are more in
number and this need to be included in the taxation report for the proper evaluation of the
business. So, it’s advised to Frank to go for the accrual method even in the coming year also
(Richardson, 2016).
Cash/Accrual Criterion Relevancy
The traditional criteria are still not irrelevant for the cash/accrual distinction because it
is still not possible for the current accounting software to tell the difference between the
cash/accrual methods. Companies should follow traditional criteria of accounting as it’s
important to maintain a standard distinction between the cash/accrual methods (Basu, 2016).

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If the software cannot differentiate between the two accounting methods then it will be
problematic.
Conclusion
If the legislation and accounting method then its necessary that legal procedure and
the criteria must be exactly like as it is told in the taxation guideline. Frank’s business is
growing gradually and he is able to pocket some contracts and at the verge of increasing his
business. So he cannot neglect the taxation guidelines. The negligence will only harm his
business and to control any dispute and to decrease the tax amount it’s really important for
Frank to follow the necessary guidelines.
Question 2
Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 states under section 8-1 that during the calculation
of payable tax the expenses company have made to produce assessable income will not be
included into the payable tax amount. Section 6 of the same act is determining the contrast
between perceptible income and exempt income (McGregor-Lowndes, 2016). But it’s very
important to keep in mind that the cost company has made to produce the calculable income
will only be deducted from the payable tax. Hence it has proved that the cost company has
made to assemble the exempted income will not be deducted from the payable tax amount.
Section 17 of Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 has said that the GSTis added with the
product price, is shown as the consumption tax. Section 25-26 of the same act explains
briefly deductible and non-deductible taxes. Section 28 of the same act narrates the process of
how to deduct tax (Braithwaite, 2017).

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In the following case study, it is important to give an idea to the Ruby Pty Ltd. directors
about the possible tax deductions. Regarding the transactions made by Ruby Pty Ltd. Below
mentioned suggestions can be made:
A) Rental property expense of $ 8,500 for replacement of old and damaged kitchen fittings.
Section 8 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 has stated the guideline that payable
tax won’t include the managerial cost of the company. The assessable income has to face the
deductions and this withdrawal needs to be made against the running year’s income.
Presently Ruby Pty Ltd annually incomes around $35,000. But the kitchen maintenance costs
$8,500. Henceforth this $8,500 won’t be a part of annual income and will be withdrawn from
the company’s rent (Gupta & Sawyer, 2015). The taxable rent of Ruby Pty Ltd is 26,500 in
the current year. Section 25-10 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 states that this
amount comes under the income where the company has to pay tax.
B) $7000 legal expense for settling a negligence claim.
For claiming of the subtraction the company needs to claim only the cost that is
associated with rental income. If the case is analysed then it can be seen that one of the
tenant’s visitor got injury from slipping at the steps. She has filed against the company a case
stating that the injury is a result of the faulty manufacturing products used by the company.
Therefore the company has to pay $7,000 (Frecknall-Hughes &Kirchler, 2015). The expense
didn’t get included in the conclusive income tax amount as the reason of the cost is requital
for construction defect. Other than this the payment was due till company’s year ending date.
Section 26.5 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 states that subtraction from payable
tax is not possible on penalty charges (Braithwaite, Reinhart & Job, 2018).

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C) An outgoing ($ 750,000) comprising of claim amount for faulty parts.
In the next scenario we will see, the company has accepted the low quality material they
had provided to their clients and now they have to accept the defective products as return and
the client is asking for repayment from the company. The car manufacturing company placed
law charge against the company in Federal court. The issue resolved in November of 2017
and the decision went against the company. So the company didn’t deny the claim and the
client got $750,000 as compensation. This huge loss of the company is seen as the charge for
their supply of faulty material (Davison, Monotti & Wiseman, 2015). In the case of Helsby
Cables Ltd v. Atherton [1926] there was a proper distinction between the revenue and capital
expenditure. In accordance with this, the ongoing expenses will be considered as the revenue
expenditure. Thus, the Section 26-5 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 states that the
penalty the company has borne is not the deductible amount from the company’s taxable
income.
D) Provisions to the tune of $ 100,000 made in relation to the above claims.
The cost Ruby Pty Ltd had to bear for the compensation to the car manufacturing
company has led to the tension of the company directors as this cost has lowered the profit
amount. The directors came up with an idea of accumulating a fund amount worth of
$100,000 for future claiming issues (D'Ascenzo, 2015). Section 15 of Income Tax
Assessment Act 1997 provides that the accumulated amount is not assessable income.
Therefore, this amount is not included into the deductible tax amount.
E) Market research cost i.e. $ 220,000 which has been paid to consultant.
In the last part it’s said that the company was willing about re-entering into the car
parts production industry. Company directors planned to go with a new alloy which will
ultimately prove profitable. They paid $220,000 to the consultant that was investigating the

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matter of their re-entering into their old industry (Cao et al., 2015). But after researching on
the industry for quite a sometime and noticing the uncertainty of motor industry the directors
decide not to move further with the plan and ceased the project idea. This whole process
comes under the regulation of section 25-40 of the income tax assessment act 1997. The act
consisted of the rule that if a company faces a loss from the amount of profit then the
company can deduct that money from the amount of payable tax. So, here the total cost can
be subtracted from the income tax report (Burton &Karlinsky, 2016).
Conclusion
The whole case study is being referred to the division 25 and 26.These divisions deal
with the discussion of deductible and non-deductible expenses for the calculation of tax
return. We are seeing here total five situations of the company where three times the
company faces non-deductible cost and the other two times company had to bear deductible
cost. The directors of the company need to keep in mind the legislations and circumstances of
the cases during the preparation of taxation report to enjoy the deduction on the payable tax
amount.

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